So, like, what is the actual intended purpose of warmode?

[MrHappy]

Warmode is a toggle between playing on PvE and PvP server with PvP giving you more rewards to offset the time loss that may occur due to opposite faction killing you and delaying the completion of your quests/tasks.

[Bane-Thunder-God]

If you had listened to Blizzard, the intention was to give everybody the option to PvE or PvP server without having to change servers and leave friends behind. The bonus was intended to allow for situations where a player may be out matched or over powered by the opposite faction.

Just like the ML issue, the real intention was for Blizzard to mitigate the damage the player base was doing to itself. Massive amounts of ninjaing and loot denial forced blizzards hand for ML. Rivers of tears about world PvP flowed constantly. People made the choice to go to these servers and eventually found themselves unable to compete out in the world because they chose the wrong server.

As we see now with Classic, people are massive dickbags. They choose a PvP server and then are essentially stomped to the ground. Then they blame blizzard. Warmode stopped this. The only problem is that bonuses should have been XP only and people should have been convinced by fun gameplay and appropiate rewards for participating.

This x 1000

I don't know why people can't grasp this. Blizzard provided a better option than having to PAY to change server. And yet playerbase still complains WTF is wrong with you people.

[Marrilaife]

it's about going out there and getting into some trouble and having fun.

Then remove bonuses from warmode, then people will actually turn it on "for fun" instead of only to exploit the bonuses.

The bonuses exist because Blizzard tries to bribe people who have no business doing pvp into pvp, for no other reason than to up the participation rates in world pvp.

Remove the bonuses and I'd swear all the world pvpers will never have to worry about pve carebears runing their fun. Maybe the pvp shards will be more empty, maybe you'll have fewer of them, but you'll know 100% the only people who are in warmode are people who find world pvp fun and not people who just want extra xp, ap or item.

[DeltrusDisc]

Really hate how people think flying killed wpvp. Flying didn't kill anything, queues and instanced pvp offering better rewards did. When queues were really long, people would use the long queues to go and do stuff. Short queues put all of the people that want to pvp into instanced pvp, isolated from the rest of the world. Which is a shame, because world pvp is certainly the best pvp, it breaks up the monotony for everyone, and is very fluid and natural. I'm sure some weird wpvp moment is some of the top pvp moments for most people. My favorite was a SS vs TM fight that migrated into Arathi Highlands. The Horde trapping the Alliance in Refuge Pointe, and the Alliance eventually pushing out.
Fights like that happened only because people who wanted to pvp, and people who were somewhat inclined to pvp, had no better way to pvp than to pick a fight with others in the world.

But hey, it's hard to gank people with flying mounts, so let's hate on those because it's the cool thing to do. The real enemy to wpvp is arenas and battlegrounds and their short queues, as well as the lack of the worthwhile pvp rewards in warmode. If people could quickly get their conquest and honor and get their weekly chest through Warmode, then we'd see a lot more people in Warmode. If that happened then, Blizzard would have troubles getting metrics of how much fun people are having, and they can't have that, as well as a lack of a competition to advertise at Blizzcon. Arenas are simple spectator sports, in comparison to battlegrounds, and battlegrounds are infinitely easier to advertise and make entertaining, than a forced SS vs TM conflict on a Blizzcon server between some random Alliance and Horde population. Certainly more fun for players, but harder for Blizzard to make money off of.

I'll admit you bring up some very good points that I agree with.
But would you agree flying played some part? Ever since it was introduced, yes, back in TBC, world PVP became less prominent. It was still there, just less often. When people can just up and fly away... it makes stuff moot.

[Sansnom]

And what it all makes me wonder is, what is the point of warmode? Some people tell me that it is crucial, that it is there to compensate WPvPers for their time lost WPvPing - but that is not what I am seeing,

It is primary to remove PvP being bounded to servers and instead allow people to choose PvP if they want it.

One of the problem in the past was that some friends wants to play together but some do not mind PvP and others does not want it. This created issues of friends either persist with PvP or change to PvE.

Warmode is their solution. Player choose PvP rather than the server.

Personally, PvP was relatively rare and even then a significant portion were ganking. So when people claim they want WPvP, i rarely belief it. If they truly want WPvP, they can raid faction cities but that rarely happens.

So the fact you do not really encounter opposition suggest that not that many people actually want PvP and currently sees warmode as a bonus. Infact, there has been other posts complaining about how unfair when they cannot uses warmode due to numeric imbalance. Well, PvP has never been a fair fight and never will.

[Shiza]

Listeen you got gangked and now you're complaining on forums, fair enought. But warmode saved world pvp for me, I have had endless fun and unexptected situtations unfold and I'm never gonna turn Warmode off again.

Why can't you see the point about warmode? It's because we have too factions at war with each other. It's a feature that reflects that

"To ask why we fight... ... is to ask why the leaves fall. It is in their nature. Perhaps, there is a better question."

And what is the reason that you don't engage in real, instanced ranked pvp? From what I've seen so far, wpvpers tend to be the equivalent of lfr raiders.

[Jamie081]

And what is the reason that you don't engage in real, instanced ranked pvp? From what I've seen so far, wpvpers tend to be the equivalent of lfr raiders.

I can agree with this, but it's still much more interesting than having wmode off. Every alliance I spontaneously come across is some backpedalling mouthbreather.

The only ones that manage to kill me are literally outnumbering me 5:1 (I can usually cope with 2 or 3), or gladiators joining a LFG premade to clear my bounty. I see so many clowns who go tank spec and still can't win a fight. Tank spec =/= I.W.I.N.

[Shiza]

I can agree with this, but it's still much more interesting than having wmode off. Every alliance I spontaneously come across is some backpedalling mouthbreather.

The only ones that manage to kill me are literally outnumbering me 5:1 (I can usually cope with 2 or 3), or gladiators joining a LFG premade to clear my bounty. I see so many clowns who go tank spec and still can't win a fight. Tank spec =/= I.W.I.N.

Because they are not pvp players and have not the slightest interest in pvping with you. They are literally bribed by Blizzard to play with you. So yeah, do you seriously feel good about beating people who have not the slightest interest in engaging in any shape or form in pvp and are simply bribed to do so?

This is why wpvp is even worse than lfr. LFR at least doesn't gives bad players illusion of grandeur. LFR Raiders know, they do the tourist mode and have nothing to brag about when they defeat Azshara on LFR. Wpvp encourages bad players to feel and behave like some kind of elite gladiators because they can defeat players basically bribed into being their prey despite no intents on playing this game mode.

Players who predominantly engage in world pvp should know, they are the lfr raiders of pvp and have nothing to feel proud about. Just like pvp players can only feel like they are actually archieving something if they at least beat the content in heroic, pvp players should acknowledge that nothing below a somewhere decent rank in actual pvp content matters.

[Jamie081]

Because they are not pvp players and have not the slightest interest in pvping with you. They are literally bribed by Blizzard to play with you. So yeah, do you seriously feel good about beating people who have not the slightest interest in engaging in any shape or form in pvp and are simply bribed to do so?

This is why wpvp is even worse than lfr. LFR at least doesn't gives bad players illusion of grandeur. LFR Raiders know, they do the tourist mode and have nothing to brag about when they defeat Azshara on LFR. Wpvp encourages bad players to feel and behave like some kind of elite because they can defeat players basically bribed into their prey despite no intents on playing this game mode.

I mean 80% of the time they come and attack me first so obviously they're interested in pvp lol. It's always while I'm killing mobs. Shock at them thinking it's an easy kill.

Just because they don't win against me doesn't mean they're helpless LFR heroes who are bribed into something against their will. They just lost a fight despite picking it.

No one forces them at all, it's their own decision to play with war mode on, and most people (especially alliance) don't.

[msdos]

I actually think Warmode is the best recent feature for retail. Sometimes I want world pvp, sometimes I don't. I don't like having to opt into either one permanently.

What I don't like about it is the talent aspect. The talents themselves are mediocre depending on class. The way they're implemented is horrible. I'm not sure if they really listen to player feedback, so the PVP talents you get aren't necessarily fun. Some of them are just group utility that have no interaction. I dunno, I'm just not sure about the design on PVP talents or talents in general, on DK they are very weak.

[Kalisandra]

To bribe people into ganking world PvP by offering PvE bonuses, as well as a slightly more interesting toolkit for your class of choice.

Locking abilities behind the PvP flag annoys the heck out of me. It's especially annoying with abilities that were once baseline or ordinary talents but are now only available in PvP.

[Akibaboy]

That's also a flawed premise. You really want people who are only there for the bonus, and who will likely actively avoid combat? Who have no interest in pvp, and will almost certainly leave the moment they get ganked.

Basically you just asked for people to be griefed under the bait of a pve bonus. That's fucked, and quite honestly you should be ashamed for even suggesting it.

This right here is the reason why wow wpvp is cancer.

That person who actively avoided combat and just wanted extra sauce was me. I thought if I ever got ganked or ran into too many enemies I'd just turn it off.

Then I played the game... got kills, made groups to tackle contested objectives, do the weeklies, seek out the optional PvP objectives and do assaults when they're up because I know other players will be there. I basically discovered something I had no interest in was tons of fun simply because Blizzard gave me a reason to try it, and I found out I was actually pretty good at something I assumed I'd be terrible at.

I never turn Warmode off now. My AP is capped, my reps are done, War Resources are somewhere around 80k, I don't care about gold... yet it's still on. I never would've attempted it in the first place if it wasn't for the incentives though.

[Ange]

WPVP mode exists as a feature with minimal implementation - 1 aura buff, usable pvp talents and 1 edited talent window artwork and nothing else.

Was the main drive just to get the homogenization benefits with getting rid of PVP/PVE servers?

If WPVP was a "real" feature like quests or just WQ, we would have seen extras like mini arenas or just terain changes, just like they do for every damn quest. But there is nothing, but the mini implementation.

Lets be real, the feature was DEFAULT on PVP servers for years and the whole WPVP change basicly affected PVE server players, who simply choose the wrong server type.

[SirCowdog]

That person who actively avoided combat and just wanted extra sauce was me. I thought if I ever got ganked or ran into too many enemies I'd just turn it off.

Then I played the game... got kills, made groups to tackle contested objectives, do the weeklies, seek out the optional PvP objectives and do assaults when they're up because I know other players will be there. I basically discovered something I had no interest in was tons of fun simply because Blizzard gave me a reason to try it, and I found out I was actually pretty good at something I assumed I'd be terrible at.

I never turn Warmode off now. My AP is capped, my reps are done, War Resources are somewhere around 80k, I don't care about gold... yet it's still on. I never would've attempted it in the first place if it wasn't for the incentives though.

And I have to ask: Do you believe that you are an example of what normally happens? Or are you an exception to the generalization I made?

Most pve players who turn on war mode for the bonus are just going to turn it off again if their objective is being occupied by PVPers. Or they'll go somewhere else. Sure, a few people like you might discover a newfound interest in PVP, but that's rare. The vast majority won't.

And remember, the person I responded to doesn't want actual PVP-oriented players. He wants pve farmers to gank. His argument was not "The war mode bonus is there to maybe get people ro realize they like pvp". It was "The war mode bonus is there to bait canon fodder for us to gank".

Not in so many words, of course. I'm paraphrasing.

[Volardelis]

People fondly remember when the servers were just getting started and there were all out battles for dominance. That’s fun. But here’s the problem:

One side usually wins and starts to dominate, and there’s no corrective mechanism that restores balance once that happens. When world PvP was realm specific, realms became 99% one faction, and now that it’s global, the entire world is moving to one faction (horde), albeit gradually.

OCE servers for the most part are still Alliance dominant. OCE servers tend to shard only with other OCE servers. Assuming you are not in a group.

[glowpipe]

The main reason for warmode was that they constantly got complaints that people were forced to play pvp servers with their friends or viceversa. Many people had a bunch of friends playing and they wanted to play on a pvp server and because of that, people had to chose between playing on a server they didn't want to play on, ditch their irl/online friends and find another server or quit. Man quit. Now you no longer have to chose server, you chose pvp status.

I was one of them being trapped on a pvp server (altho, i never complained to blizzard about it) I have absolutely NO interest in pvp what so ever but i had an entire guild of friends playing on one. So me being out in the world and being harrassed by groups of gankers just simply made me lose interest in the game. Now i can just turn of warmode and still playing with my friends. This has been the greatest addition to the game as of yet. That being said, they probably have to work out making warmode better for pvpers aswell. But lets be fair here. This is mainly a pve game

[rrayy]

implying pvp is just that

Those that whine that flying ruins PvP are referring to exactly that. They are whining because they can't grief lowbies anymore and that is not PvP.

[Xi Jinping]

And what is the reason that you don't engage in real, instanced ranked pvp? From what I've seen so far, wpvpers tend to be the equivalent of lfr raiders.

What a arguement. Ranked pvp and world pvp have a whole nother substance and flavour to it. World pvp is spontaneous unexpected and you never know whom is gonna get aid from nearby faction mates.
But you surely know the reasons why world pvp appeal to some and "real instanced ranked pvp" to others. You just don't think wpvp qualifies as real pvp and therefore you invalidate it. That comparison to LFR just really proves my point.

I understand why somebody would feel forced because of the rewards for havin wm, but otherwide just turn it off if you don't like it. Nobody deserves to be compared to LFR raiders

[Doctor Funkenstein]

The purpose of warmode is to get rid of the failing PVP servers.
The purpose of PVP servers is to keep the worst aspects of the gaming community away from the majority of players; a factor Blizzard chose to ignore in favor of the former.

[Shiza]

What a arguement. Ranked pvp and world pvp have a whole nother substance and flavour to it. World pvp is spontaneous unexpected and you never know whom is gonna get aid from nearby faction mates.
But you surely know the reasons why world pvp appeal to some and "real instanced ranked pvp" to others. You just don't think wpvp qualifies as real pvp and therefore you invalidate it. That comparison to LFR just really proves my point.

I understand why somebody would feel forced because of the rewards for havin wm, but otherwide just turn it off if you don't like it. Nobody deserves to be compared to LFR raiders

Sorry to shove that mirror into your face. Wpvp is not real pvp content. For most of the time it is ganking lowlevel players, solo players in a group or players who are not interested in engaging in pvp and actively try to avoid it while being coerced by Blizzard putting rather strong pve rewards into WM. Real pvp is instanced ranked pvp. Here you have skill-based pvp with an actual route to character progression. Wpvp doesn't offer you any such rewards, it is about people who don't or can't compete in ranked pvp feeling strong for defeating inferior opponents and getting joy out of ruining the game experience for others.

There is a reason why world pvp died when instanced bgs where introduced.